


Touch My Hair

by WhumpTown



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Brightwell, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21776191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown
Summary: Tumblr AskMalcolm/Bright-Fluff
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Touch My Hair

“I used to watch ER in my dorm, in college.” 

That morning, Dani woke up first. Malcolm was taking up half the bed, his legs tangled on her half of the bed and his head up in the corner of his side. She didn’t hit him with a pillow or fuss or even pick a fight. She didn’t even tell him about it when he woke up. She simply slid out of bed and made breakfast. 

He didn’t eat much of the eggs but he ate two pieces of toast and that’s more than she can ask for. They made fun of his Daily Affirmation, ‘I allow myself to be who I am without judgment’, and she counted out his pills while he ran back to the bedroom to put on sweatpants. 

“ER?” She fiddles with his fingers. Examining the calluses on the pads. He strikes her as more of Criminal Minds or Bones kind of guy. Then again, perhaps those sorts of shows are too familiar. She’s seen enough episodes of Criminal Minds over the years to know what that show thinks about the sons and daughters of serial killers. It’s not kind.

Malcolm laughs and nods. “Before I wanted to work with the FBI, I was going to be a doctor.” The smile turns a little sour,” but I thought… I thought they would be the ones to treat me poorly. I thought the FBI would be better. Their training should have…” Malcolm clears his throat. “I wanted to be an ER doctor like Carter.”

Dani smiles. She tries to remember what her first career aspiration was. She was never much of a ‘princess’ type but she wanted to be a model. That lasted until middle school, then the chaos of body issues and hormones stifled that idea. She can’t remember deciding when being a cop was what she wanted. 

She squeezes his fingers,” do you regret not being a doctor?”

He regrets a lot of things. 

When he was fifteen and broke into his mother’s room to drink a bottle of expensive wine and all the benzos he could fit in the palm of his hand. Even then, he didn’t regret that until the next morning. Jackie with red puffy eyes holding him tight. His mother broken ugly sobs as Gil remained unable to talk her down from her guilt. Then there was Ainsely. Who had found him. Vomit all around him, in his hair on his clothes. Seizing. He never did that again. 

There was a roof incident. It freezing outside and he was playing a dangerous teetering game on the ledge. His knees kept jerking underneath him, weak and trembling with each new gust of icy wind. His roommate found him. Max was, thankfully, a very cool guy. His sister has some sort of manic depression thing and Max just talked him down. Like it was nothing at all. They went out for burgers after that and Malcolm noticed how much closer Max watched him after that night.

Those were the only outright attempts. It doesn’t mean they were the only time his actions hurt others. He’s fought and screamed with Ainsely, unable to tell her with words that he’s terrified so instead he told she was the coward. Then he ran away to Harvard. There was the time he snuck off to a party and called Gil at 3 am to come to get him. He didn’t even like drinking but it seemed like the deprecating thing to do.

But, his answer is no.

Not a moment. 

He’d take the relentless bullying he faced at the academy. The men so much larger than him picking him as their sparring partners just to hit him too hard, to hear the satisfying crunch of his brittle ribs. He only had one friend, a slightly older man named Jared. He was kind and Malcolm watched him die. Their third case together, Jared didn’t see it coming and neither Malcolm.

But he’s here now. All those things, they lead him here.

“Nah.” Malcolm wiggles the fingers of his left hand over her face,” my hands are a little unsteady.” He smiles down at her,” plus, I wouldn’t have met you.”

Dani lets that comment break her heart for all of a handful of seconds before she rolls her eyes. She loves him, the terrible dork. Then she pushes his chest gently,” shut up with your sappy shit.” She wraps a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him down until she can grab a quick kiss. “Wanna call the Chinese place, watched Chopped, and play with my hair?”

Malcolm grins.

Yeah, he regrets a lot. Things he’s said and done. He’d do it again, though. Even if it just means that it all brings him back for this one single moment. Nothing more. It would have all been worth it.

“Are you going to make me call in the Chinese?”

Dani’s eyes soften and she sits up. The warmth her body draped over his lap now gone and he can feel the crisp winter edge in the air. She kisses him again, a hand at the back of his neck so that when she pulls away she can lean her head against his. “Malcolm,” her voice has a serious edge he hadn’t expected. “As long as I am here, I promise to never make you have the anxiety-inducing panic that is ordering Chinese over the phone.” 

She offers a single quick grin before he stands and walks to the nightstand. She grabs her phone off the charger and heads to the kitchen. She had stashed some coupons in one of the drawers and he knows that’s what she is searching for as draws open and shut.

“I love you too, Dani.”


End file.
